The Madness Of Love | The Secret History

XIX

In the first week of April the weather turned suddenly, unseasonably, insistently lovely. The sky was blue, the air warm and windless, and the sun beamed with all the sweet impatience of June.

In the second week of April everyone waited to see if the weather would hold. It did, with serene assurance. I put away my winter coat and walked around in my shirtsleeves.
"This won't last" said Henry.

In the third week of April I was reading in my room on a Friday night with the windows open. It was long after midnight, I was half-asleep over my book, when someone bellowed my name outside my window.

I shook myself and sat up, just in time to see one of Bunny's shoes flying through my open window.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"

He didn't reply, only raised his free hand in a gesture half wave. The back door slammed, and after a few moments he was banging on the door of my room.

When I opened it he came limping in.
"Dickie boy" he mumbled.
The outburst beneath my window seemed to have left him strangely uncommunicative.

By degrees, I managed to extricate from him the evening's events. The twins and Lilith had taken him to dinner, afterwards to a bar in town for more drinks; he'd then gone alone to the party across the lawn.

"Can't stomach it any longer" he suddenly mumbled. "Just can't."
I didn't say anything.
"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Bunny said abruptly. "Nobody listens to me" his voice was rising.

I was alarmed. "Calm down" I said. "I'm listening to you."
"Well, listen to this" he said.

-------------------

It was three in the morning when he finally stopped talking and left my room. I could hear his peculiar limping progress down the stairs.

In a horrible daze, I sat on my bed and tried to pull myself together. Why had Bunny decided to come to my room instead of Cloke's, or Marion's?
I put on a pair of loafers and went downstairs to call Henry.

The pay phone in Monmouth was too exposed for my taste, so I walked over to the Science Building.

The phone must've rung a hundred times. No answer. Finally I pressed down the receiver and dialed the twins.

Charles answered. He told me to come over to their apartment while he runs down to Henry's to check if he's there.

When I got to the twins apartment I met Charles coming from the direction of Henry's, alone.
"No luck?"
"No" he said, breathing hard. "Come upstairs, we'll think of something."

We had just got our coats off when the light in Camilla's room came on and she appeared in the doorway with Lilith.
"Charles? What are you doing here?" she said when she saw me. I didn't answer and was looking at Lilith.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her.
"Oh, we were just playing some cards." she said, in a bored tone. "What happened?"

Rather incoherently, Charles explained what had happened.
"Is he there?" said Lilith.
"I know he is."
"Are you sure?"
"Where else would he be at three a.m.?"

"Wait a second" suddenly said Camilla and went to the telephone. "I just want to try something."
She dialed, listened for a moment, hung up, dialed again.
"What are you doing?"
"It's a code." she said.
"Code?"
"Yes. He told me once - Oh, hello, Henry" she said and sat down.

I was looking at both Charles and Lilith and it was hard to tell which one was more surprised and annoyed.

Camilla hung up. "He says to come over, Richard" she said. "He's waiting for you."
"I'll drive you" quickly said Lilith, and almost dragged me out of the apartment. We could hear the twins arguing.

------------------

Henry - wide awake, no explanations and not surprised that Lilith was there - met us at the door in his bathrobe. We followed him into the kitchen, and he poured some coffee in three cups.
"Now" he said "tell me what happened."

I did. He listened to me, interrupting only about twice. I was so tired that I rambled a bit, but he was patient with my digressions.

Lilith sat across the table, silent the whole time, smoking Henry's cigarettes one after another with her blue eyes fastened on me.

By the time I finished, the sun was up and the birds were singing. Henry switched off the lamp and went to the stove and began, rather mechanically, to make some bacon and eggs.

While we both ate (Lilith was only drinking coffee), I looked at them curiously. They were extremely pale, and their eyes were tired and preoccupied. There was nothing in either of their expressions that gave me indication what they might be thinking.

"Henry" I said. "If you still got the idea of poisoning him-"
"Don't be absurd" he snapped. "It's ridiculous. Poisoned mushrooms."
I was taken aback. "But I thought it was kind of a good idea." I said.

He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "The poison is too slow. There are half a dozen problems with it. Control of the dose is risky, but time is the real concern. From my standpoint the longer the better, but still... A person can do an awful lot of talking in twelve hours."

There was a long silence. Henry closed his eyes for a long moment.
"What are you going to do?" I said.
"I think I'm going to go out and run a few errands" he said. "I want you to go home and go to sleep. I'd drive you, but I don't think it's a good idea for us to be seen together."

He began to fish in the pocket of his bathrobe, pulling out a couple of quarters.
"Stop at the newsstand and buy a paper. In case anyone should wonder why you're wandering around at this hour." he got quiet for a moment. "She can drive you."

Lilith's eyes shot up.
"I'm staying." She searched for something in her pockets and finally took out a twenty-dollar bill.
"Here you go, Richie, find a cab."

I took the bill. Henry looked at Lilith curiously and even a bit thankfully. Then he turned to me.
"I may have to talk to you. I'll leave a message that a Doctor Springfield called. Don't try to get in touch with me before then."
"Sure."

He and Lilith stood up and they started to walk out of the kitchen. Then he turned around and looked at me. "I'll never forget this, you know." he said matter-of-factly.
"It's nothing."
"It's everything and you know it."
"You've done me a favor or two yourself." I said, but they had already started out and didn't hear me. I only caught a glimpse of his arm around her waist while walking out.

I know this took a long time, but looking at the bright side I already have planned the ending for this book.
Not proofread. Love you x